Several student couples quietly entered Bud Walton Theatre Tuesday night for the first official performance of Love Letters.

At first, the audience waited in quiet anticipation for the romantic play, but then conversations became more animated among viewers as the show time crept closer.

The conversations between audience members foreshadowed the relationship between the main characters of Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner in Love Letters.

While Andy and Melissa became quick friends in second grade, they were soon separated and sent to different boarding schools. Despite life’s pursuits, failed relationships, globe-trotting and career plans, they managed to keep in contact through frequent letter writing.

“Andy and Melissa are always in love, but not always at the right place or the right time,” said Dr. Jay Fields, theatre department head and director of Love Letters. “They know each other better through the letters than face to face. When they get together, it’s how it should have always been.”

This isn’t the first time Love Letters has been performed at Missouri Southern. Duane and Gwen Hunt, who play Andy and Melissa, performed the same production 10 years ago as a fund-raiser. The proceeds were for the rebuilding of the barn theatre, but with a generous contribution from the Wal-Mart Foundation, the Bud Walton Theatre was built instead.

One of the reasons Fields decided to do the play was because it included former faculty members. Duane is a former associate professor of theatre and is also a professor emeritus at Southern. Gwen is the former director of public information.

Another reason Fields decided to do the play was so students could see this type of production.

The two main characters in Love Letters don’t physically interact during the play, except by reacting to the letters being read aloud to the audience. Instead, they respond facially and bodily to the letters written to them.

“The audience has to come, listen carefully and create in their mind what people are talking about,” Fields said.

With such a wide range of characters, one might think it difficult to act like a second grader and then, 45 minutes later, act like a mature adult. In movies, there are usually multiple actors who play the different stages in each character’s life.

However, the Hunts do it all.

“I like playing little kids,” Duane said. “I also like playing the older, mature relationship after he becomes a senator.”

“I like Act 2 when they’re adults and off running their own various lives,” Gwen said.

By Saturday, the Hunts will have performed Love Letters about 30 times throughout their careers.

“It’s a wonderful piece of writing,” Gwen said. “It’s great that we get to carry scripts on stage.”

Duane and Gwen have been married for 40 years and have been performing together since college. Some of the productions they’ve acted in together include: Finian’s Rainbow, Ancestral Voices, and Giants in the Earth.

“The more we do it, the more intricacies we notice in the writing of the show,” Duane said about Love Letters. “We try to get it the same way every time, but the relationship is so varied between the people it can be played so many different ways.”

Love Letters opened Sept. 21 and will have performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.